The bent, warped, sliced and seemingly delicate steel is a nice counterpoint to the surrounding skyline, the location adds to certain pieces’ uncanny sense of weightlessness and, as opposed to the aforementioned shows up there, Caro maintains a distinctly human scale.

The British sculptor attended yesterday’s media preview of the exhibition, offering his thoughts on the location, New York, and the state of contemporary art. “Artists always need to be pushing the culture forward,” he said. “Not all the way over the edge, though. It’s like downhill skiing: you need to be slightly out of control to keep moving.”

The oldest piece in the rooftop mini-retrospective: “Midday” (1960).

He also dropped news that he’s working on a forthcoming sculpture for the Park Avenue median (currently occupied by Will Ryman’s giant roses). After riding up Park in a cab he realized that one of the site’s major challenges is creating something that will be visible from a vehicle going 30 miles per hour. “I started working on a piece that would be one block long,” he said, “now it’s extended to three blocks.” He’s still working on a small scale model of the extremely long piece, but expects it to be installed in March 2012. So there’s that to look forward to. In the meantime, don’t miss Anthony Caro on the Roof, on view through October 30 whenever the weather’s decent (like today).

Another view of “Midday” with its cantilevering quadrangle of steel.

Anthony Caro’s “After Summer” (1968).

From here “After Summer” evokes waves, wings and a whale’s tale.

My favorite piece, but also the hardest to photograph, “Odalisque” (1984) is full of sliced spheres, cut curves and unexpected textures.

From the front, “Blazon” (1987-90) looks like deconstructed architecture, but from the back…

…it’s a play of abstract folds and surprisingly curving surfaces.

The show’s most recent piece, “End Up” (2010), is part picture frame, part portal from the front.

From the back, “End Up” is more assertively abstract.

Anthony Caro in front of “Midday.” He was very charming, talkative and candid about his work.

Cao answered questions alongside his piece “After Summer.”

Of the Met rooftop garden he said: “I generally don’t like outdoor sculpture, but I somehow consider this to not be outdoors. It’s special… You couldn’t ask for a better backdrop.”